Cooking apparatus



July 17. 1928.

F. BLATTNER, JR.. El AL COOKING APPARATUS 3 2 9 l 5 l t c o d July 17; 1928. 1.67 7,227

F. BLATTNER, JR" ET AL COOKING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 15, 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l Patented July 17, 1928.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE-) FREDERICK BLATTNER, JR, AND EMIL JANKE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

cooxme APPARATUS.

Application filed October 15, 1923. Serial No. 668,647.

Our invention has to do with cooking food such as hams and corned beef on a large scale, the apparatus embodying our inven tion being capable, for instance of cooking at one time two and one half tons of ham,

and the primary object of the invention is to secure the thorough uniform cooking of these large quantities of meat and to do so with a minimum of labor and without danger of injury to the workmen. Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the detailed description which is given hereinafter of what we now regard as a most satisfactory embodimentof our invention. Our invention consists in Whatever is described by or is included within the terms or scope of the appended claim. y o

. In the annexed drawings: a v i Fig. 1 is a view partly inside elevation andpartly in lon 'itudinalsection of apparatus embodying t einvention; L

Fig. 2is a .sectionon-the line 2-2 of Fig.

Describing generally the embodiment of our invention shown in the drawing the apparatus comprises an oblong tank, a steam coil at the bottom thereof, a pump forcirculating Water through the tank so as to, assure a uniform temperature, a cradle orframe ada ted to support trays or shelves for the foo articles to be cooked and powermeans for lowering and raising the cradle or frame toplace the articles of food u'pon the shelves :5 in the water in the tank, and to remove the same therefrom when cooked so that they may be removed from the shelves and replaced b other articles to be cooked.

Descri ing in detail what is shown in the 40 drawings the tank, 10, has bottom, side and end walls made of sheet steel with its top open and so constructed and braced as to have all required strength to withstand the pressure of the cooking water contained and a circulated therein, there being close to the bottom a steam heating coil, 11, which is connected throu the bottom of-the tank to the steam line, t tankresting at its bottom on several I-beams', 12, and supported a no spaced distance above thefloor. At one end of the tank on the outside is located a rotary pump, 13, the outlet of which is connected by a pipe, 14, that passes beneath the tank and discharges into thefar end of the tank I; near the bottom thereof, while the pump inlarge tanks;

let is connected by a pipe, 15, near the upper part of the tank at the opposite end. By this means the circulation of the cooking water in the tank is accomplished and thus a uniform temperature assured. The tank at one end in the upper part thereof has a funnel-like extension, 16, from the bottom of which leads a discharge pipe, 17 for automatically removing from the tankthe fat which during the cooking operation floats to the surface of the water in the tank and thereby such fat is salvaged, it being delivered from the draw-off pipe, 17, to a suitable receptacle.

Vertically movable withinthe tank is a cradle that is a framework which consists of a vertical post or standard, 18, at each of the four corners of the tank which at the top are connected in pairs atthe tank ends by a horizonal cross bar, 19, and at the bottom are bolted or otherwise attached to a rectangular frame, 20, made of angle iron, which fits loosely within the tank around the heating coil, 11, and there are also four intermediate standards, 21, which are conof standards has attached to it horizontal cross bar, 22, and are attached at the bottom to said frame, 20. At intervals each pair of standards has'attached to it horizonal angle bars, 23, which forms supports for racks or slatted trays or shelves, 24, upon which pans or vessels, 25, containing for example ham or corn beef are supported and according as the cradle is raised or lowered are submerged in the water in the tank or lifted therefrom. Each shelf or tray is made of two sections or halves one half being towards the front of the tank and the other"t owards the back of the tank so that the work of placing food upon and removing it from the shelves may be facilitated and make it unnecessary for the workman to lean over the side of the tank to reach the articles of food with the danger of losing his balance and falling into the tank and being scalded by the hot water therein, this occurrence being possible and having sometimes happened with apparatuses of other construction employing will be removed from the ledges,- 23, by being slid or lifted therefrom and the remaining section will be drawn along the ledge to the side of the tank at which the workman stands so that he can readily place thereon the One section or half of a shelf ill desired number of articles of food or remove the same; tl' aii d tliei 'eaftii'ijf sues; section ispuslied towards the rear of the tank and supporting its quota of articles of food, it the loadingoperatiion is heingperiiormed. and then the remaining half or seetionis put upon the ledges and supplied with'its quota of its articles of food, l t the food to be cooked is not placed in containers or pans haying suthcient weight tocause thesinking orisulii thereof intot-he water and i, w n i, I the llft lQ lQS Qf i ood, are apt to float, Wltlllfl, the water, their siil iinergenc'e is effectec by placing in an upper part ofi the cradle, t he shely es' which areslid'into channel bars, 2Q, tliat ale secured, to the standards near the l'op 'tl'ii'eo'f, the channel, bars being providedito force the sl' cjlres" into the water in the tank as they Pl SS IIPQ Il, the floating articlesofi food in the tank,

'Tlie p rohleiii of, supportingthe frame or,

cradle with so grea't a "weiglit'astwo and one hal ttonsduriiig the lowering and lifting operatipnwas one otdifiiculty because the danse x t i' 'tdna x e lent at is rr ning frame or cradl e, without, us ngan objectionable weight of ma tgr a l W l d this pi qbl'em by suspending the frame, or cradle at, ea ch of its tour corners by a lIOISt-V in g ippe or 27,: attached to the top of eat-h ot the four corner standards and thence passing upward to a to a shaft, 29, on

tanlq apdghy counterbalapcing the weight of,

the cradle andith e thle reo' n by agwei'ght,

30 suspendediby wire ropes orcables, 3 1,"attache'd; o the; crpss bars, 22 coriiiect,ing the iiii rieqliitei andar s 11 h oad of i upon the ug, thus supported at; the ends and at, points intermediate the ends.

situated respectively: near the ends of the channels, 33 Eacl'i of such, bean'is consist of a pairlq't' channels, 36, which are'bolte d together by o ss bolts, 37, wl iich pass through spacing .tubes iis, between each pair of ehannels thps providing a space between the channels forlbolt s, 39, which ;pass' through a space betweenthechannels,33, as well as the space between ,thejchannels, 36, I and .into or through the ceiling, to which thefoverhead ,support ng frag ne thus made up of the spaced channels is atmhettmia from which K drum, 28, fixed an overhead frame bolted The pair of;

it is suspended. It willbe seentliat by the spacing (it the channels going to make up each of the beamsthe overhead 'lrzin'ie thus constituted may have its elements or members adjusted to. whatever position the di- 7" niensions of the tank and cradle require.

As will" he understood there are two shafts, 29, and they extend at right angles to the beams composed of the pairs of channels, 36, and such shatts are journaled, in 7 hanger bearing", 43, from thcshai't, 29, and

upon the shaft, 42, a band wheel, 44, which by belting to a countershait driven by an electric motor (not shown) receives power to simultaneously rotate both worms and thereby rotate both wheels,and throughj the lattereifect the winding or unwinding of thecables, 27, to cause uertical moremen j of the cradle to place articles (If food supported thereon into andfo ut of the cooking water in, the tank. 'Ilhe worm geariugserves" to support the cradlelin 'a raised iilositionj without the employment of any additional, special locking, means and. constitute a'siin ple and powerful forniof gearing irlliftirig the great load.upon tlieQoratlle, it sible to use a one horsej'iower electric motor for the work, Asuitahle clutch isjpijovic led by which the application of power from the motor iscont-rolledso that the operator can stop the vertical movement ofthe cradle at 10" any desired position so as to make theload ing and unloading of theishelyes convenient for the workmen and thus sayeunnecessary effort and waste of time, The vert-ical move ment,otthecradle proceeds very slowly and p hence th ere is no danger of theoperato r lieing mgured which might exist with fast moving machinery.

Thec'radle suspend ng. cables, 27, are each attached to the cradle by an eye'bolt, 45, 11

which has threaded ends for vertical adjustment so as to enable thc cradle to he ans} pended evenly in a horizontal position.

\Vhen the cradle is fullylowered into the,

tank, the vertical leg of the angle iron frame. Hl'

20,1 restsupon the botto n ofthe tank andthus the load is taken from the suspending cablesQ'l'. i

It will be seen that by our invention we provide cookingapparatus of extraordinary capac ty as toquantityoi food cooked at a time, by which a minimum 'pf lahor is required 1n the operat on, tl'iere is freedom from danger ofinpu'y or harm to the'workmen, and it is assured that the cooking will 12:;-

he done uniformly.

\Vhat we ela-im is;

A cooking apparatus comprising an obs long tank, a,cra]dle havingfo ur standards at the four corners of the tank and interine lijeii g posdiate standards, horizontal shelf-supporting shelves vertically into and out of the tank bars extending in vertical series h0rizonto expose the shelves for access.

tally in the spaces between the adjacent In testimony whereof we hereunto aflix 10 standards and attached to the standards, our signatures. 5 shelves supported by said bars, the shelves being made of front and back sections, and FREDERICK BLATTNER, JR.

means for moving the cradle with the EMIL JANKE. 

